Italian vs. French Grammar Question

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As you saw in my other post, I speak French, and I'm using to learn Italian. two things I want to asK:

1) Is there the equivalent of a 'future proche' in italian?
Je vais achete un livre = Vado acquistare un libro?

2) Is there the equivalent of 'il ya' in Italian?
*Il ya* beaucoup des hommes ici. "Il ya" in French I suppose is used
when saying "there is", "is there?". In Italian would you just say
"ci sono" for there are and "c'e'" for there is"?

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My experience, as a non-native, but somewhat fluent Italian speaker, is that "futuro prossimo" is not used in everyday speak in the sense it is used in Spanish or (I think) in French.

When you say: "Vado a prendere un caffè", it would be translated into English as "I'm going [right now] to get a coffee". It's future allright, but very very near.

"C'è", "ci sono", "ce ne sono" are, IMO, certainly, equivalents of "il y a".

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Re: Italian vs. French Grammar Question

Superseiyan wrote:

1) Is there the equivalent of a 'future proche' in italian?
Je vais achete un livre = Vado acquistare un libro?

Yes, there is, though I have never heard it labelled as "futuro imminente".
You use the verb stare + (preposition) per + infinitive. You can use the simple future as well.
Examples:

Fais attention à ce que je vais te dire - Fai attenzione a quello che sto per dirti (pay attention to what I'm telling you)

In the following sentence I would use the simple future instead:

Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce soir? Je vais aller au cinéma - Cosa farai stasera? Andrò al cinema (What are you doing tonight? I'm going to the movies)

I could even use the simple present (cosa fai stasera? - Vado al cinema) but I would never say cosa stai per fare stasera? sto per andare al cinema
When you use stare per fare you are talking about something that you will do almost immediately.

Quote:

2) Is there the equivalent of 'il ya' in Italian?
*Il ya* beaucoup des hommes ici. "Il ya" in French I suppose is used
when saying "there is", "is there?". In Italian would you just say
"ci sono" for there are and "c'e'" for there is"?

In Italian il y a = c'è / ci sono
Examples:

Il y a une table - C'è un tavolo
Il y a quatre chaises - Ci sono quattro sedie
Il y a des touristes? / Est-ce qu'il y a des touristes? / Y a-t-il des touristes? - Ci sono turisti?
Il n'y a pas des places - Non ci sono posti

Il y a eu - c'è stato / ci sono stati
Il y avait - c'era / c'erano
Il y aura - ci sarà / ci saranno
Il y aurait - ci sarebbe / ci sarebbero

Sometimes in Italian we use c'è / ci sono when 'il y a' is wrong in French:

C'è il signor Rossi? - M. Rossi est là?
Chiara e Marco ci sono? - Chiara et Marco sont-ils là?

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Italian vs. French Grammar Question

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